Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019

Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019

Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to make provision for a parliamentary general election to be held on 12 December 2019.
Citation	2019 c. 29
Introduced by	Boris Johnson, Prime Minister (Commons) Lady Evans, Leader of the House of Lords (Lords)
Territorial extent	United Kingdom
Dates
Royal assent	31 October 2019
Commencement	31 October 2019
Other legislation
Relates to	Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011
Status: Spent
History of passage through Parliament
Text of statute as originally enacted

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The Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019 (c. 29) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made legal provision for the holding of the 2019 United Kingdom General Election on Thursday 12 December 2019.^[1]

The Act was fast-tracked in its passage through Parliament, meaning that it completed all of its stages in the House of Commons in a single day, on 29 October 2019, and received its formal First Reading in the House of Lords on the same day. It completed its remaining stages there on 30 October, and received royal assent, thereby becoming law, on 31 October.^[2][3]

The Act was a very unusual piece of constitutional legislation, as it was the first time that a United Kingdom general election had been triggered by a measure that circumvented the operation of ordinary electoral law. The ordinary law on parliamentary general elections has been the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 ("FtPA"), under which elections take place every five years, except that an early general election can be triggered by the House of Commons in either of two ways: a resolution supported by at least two thirds of the total membership of the House; or by a vote of no confidence in the government, when an election must be called after fourteen days unless a motion of confidence is passed. The 2019 Act, being a new Act, required only a simple majority of the members voting in order to pass.

The Act automatically became spent upon the conclusion of the election and under the proposed Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill it will be repealed.

Background[]

On the weekend of 26 October 2019 the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party proposed introducing a bill in the House of Commons to hold a general election on 9 December 2019.^[4] This proposal was initially rejected by the Boris Johnson government as a "gimmick", owing to a vote on an early election under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (FTPA) which was to be held on 28 October 2019.

Two previous attempts in September to get a favourable vote for an early election had failed, and the government said it would keep its options open should the third early election motion fail to pass.^[5] It did fail, as the required two-thirds majority was not achieved, leaving the government still unable to trigger an election.

On 29 October, Prime Minister Boris Johnson introduced an election bill to the House of Commons to circumvent the FtPA and trigger a general election. Only a simple majority of MPs were needed for the Bill to pass. The election date set in the Bill was Thursday, 12 December 2019. After amendments to change the proposed date were voted down, the Commons approved the Bill by a vote of 438 to 20.^[6]

The Act[]

The key provisions of the Act, which contains only two sections, are section 1, subsections (1) and (2):

• (1) An early parliamentary general election is to take place on 12 December 2019 in consequence of the passing of this Act.
• (2) That day is to be treated as a polling day appointed under section 2(7) of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011.^[8]

Although the Act refers to the FtPA, it does not amend it. Consequently, under FtPA section 1(3), following the 2019 election the next election is scheduled for the first Thursday in May (2 May) 2024.

Outcome[]

Parliament was dissolved on 6 November.

The election produced an overall majority of 80 seats for the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The Conservatives won 365 seats, an increase of 48, while the Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, won 202, a loss of 60. Following the result, Corbyn announced that he would stand down as Labour Party leader early in 2020.

The results of the 2019 general election from across the 650 parliamentary constituencies in the UK

Parties		Seats	Change
	Conservative Party	365	48
	Labour Party	202	60
	Scottish National Party	48	13
	Liberal Democrats	11	1
	Plaid Cymru	4
	Green Party	1
	Brexit Party	0	New party
	Others	19
Conservative 80-seat majority

See also[]

• Brexit
• Elections in the United Kingdom

References[]

External links[]

• "Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 2 November 2019.